Elan Beer is always on time for business meetings. The proof of that is on his gold Jaguar XF license plates, which read HATE2BL8.
He previously had plates that read IMLATAGN on his blue Cadillac CTS.
It all stemmed from his chronic problem of arriving late for meetings. He owns a global business called Synaptic Solutions that designs communication networks for major clients such as Bell and Cisco and government agencies.
About 15 years ago, his wife Rivka lovingly bought him plates to put on the Cadillac to send him a message about punctuality. He found the polite jab amusing, but also heeded her message. From that point forward he began arriving on time for meetings. In fact, he has made it a point of arriving early.
“Once you are late for meetings, that sucks,” Elan told me. “I heard somebody once say, ‘If you’re not 10 minutes early, you’re already late,’ and I kind of took that to heart, especially after this message from my wife. So I started rejigging everything and I was always 10 minutes early after that.”
I happened to see the plates at a North York strip mall where I was parked. I approached Elan, told him I was a writer with The Car Magazine and was writing about personalized plates. I asked him if he’d like to be interviewed to talk about his specific plate.
I should also mention I am notoriously late, which is sometimes a product of always getting lost, even with a GPS. Elan said he also has problems with direction and if he doesn’t have a GPS he can’t find his way across the street.
About 10 years ago once Rivka saw Elan arriving early for meetings, she bought him the current plates.
“It’s funny how one little thing changes everything you do,” he said. “It’s something I’ve actually now taught my kids – if you’re not 10 minutes early, you’re already late,’” he said. “They quote that back to me all the time. It’s definitely a good rule to have.”
He said when Rivka gave him the new plates, he took it almost as an acknowledgement that he did, in fact, change.
“It was definitely appreciated,” he said.
He said he receives more reaction from the new plates than the other ones.
“People make me roll down my window at the traffic lights to ask me about it and tell me they love it,” he said. “The reaction from the other one would always be people saying, ‘That’s me, I’m always late.’ This one gets a lot more thumbs up.’”
As for the question of whether personalized plates are vanity or a conversation piece, he said in his case it was a private joke amongst family members that became a conversation piece. He said he thinks personalized plates are often a gift.
“As for the self vanity, I think that used to be the case but I don’t know if it’s true anymore,” he said.
Perry Lefko is the Content Manager of The Car Magazine. He can be reached at [email protected]. Feel free to forward any story suggestions or comments.
